


Two Girls, Sitting on a Rooftop, Shoulders Touching Because They're Probably Gay

by TheCauldronDiscord



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Cauldron Give-a-Fic-a-Thon, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28471251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCauldronDiscord/pseuds/TheCauldronDiscord
Summary: A fic written for the Cauldron Give-a-Fic-a-Thon event, Fic Santas, in December 2020, based on the prompt "Rachel/Taylor – Cuddled up for warmth." This was written for thegreatersea by an author who wishes to remain anonymous.
Relationships: Taylor Hebert | Skitter | Weaver/Rachel Lindt | Bitch | Hellhound
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43
Collections: The Cauldron Give-a-Fic-a-Thon





	Two Girls, Sitting on a Rooftop, Shoulders Touching Because They're Probably Gay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thegreatersea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatersea/gifts).



Sometimes, I felt like I was my own worst enemy. Director Hearthrow was always exerting pressure, sure, poking and prodding and trying to ‘keep me reigned in’, but it had been my idea to do an hours-long stakeout in the snow, and after that it had been my idea to ask to do another. It wasn’t snowing this time, but the rain wasn’t much better.

Winter’s chill hadn’t completely gone yet, and the sheets of sharp little water droplets that came raining down only made it worse, soaking into my costume and turning the insulating layers into heat-leeching dead weights. At least the moisture and slightly warmer environment made for more bug-friendly conditions this time. I had small clusters of bugs hidden away beneath overhangs and inside of whatever dry pockets the architecture around me provided, and of course I had hundreds of bugs covertly monitoring the situation inside the building.

The situation was, in a word, dull. Benjamin Hicks and Lucas Rivers, AKA the kingpin of the local drug trade and his parahuman bodyguard, were waiting for the arrival of three other parahumans for some kind of meeting, which should have happened about five minutes ago. Of course, I had to be here hours in advance to get the layout of the building, make sure they didn’t slip away before the meeting, and learn any more intel that could help us take them down once the meeting was happening.

I could have guessed that they wouldn’t talk much before something like this. Especially between a boss and his long-time employee, all of the details would have been hashed out hours or even days ago, leaving the only thing for them to do to be the waiting.

The fucking waiting.

There was only so much time I could kill by messing around with my bugs, and I was seriously considering trying to set up a jump rope made of spider silk when the fire escape on the opposite end of my building rattled.

It was raining, so anything metal was constantly rattling, but this was different, stronger. Heavier. Someone was climbing up here.

I slid away from the edge of the roof and army-crawled across the roof toward the fire escape, keeping low to stay hidden from the targets across the street. My cover was probably blown, but I didn’t want to jump the gun. I had all the backup bugs not already in their building converging on me; a few small bugs were close enough to the fire escape for me to send them leaping at it scattershot in hopes of tagging whoever was coming up. A pair of ticks landed on what felt like either clothes or extremely leathery skin, and I sent them skittering in a pattern that would hopefully map out the body enough to give me an idea of what was going on.

Sleeves, a coat. Damp. With a faint scratching sound, I slid into place at the top of the fire escape. Hair- no, fur collar. Short, wetted-down hair. With one hand, I popped open the compartment in the armor at the small of my back and brought out the extendable baton. A few more bugs had reached them now, and I was getting a more complete image of them, sketched out by how their arms and legs moved and the bits of their figure a single bug could trace. I flicked out the baton to its full length, tensed up my legs beneath me.

The rattling of the fire escape grew louder as my mystery guest reached the second-to-top layer. I had my baton, I had bugs ready to bite, I was ready for-

“Rachel?”

“Yeah,” she grunted, hauling herself over the edge. I gave her a hand, gesturing for her to keep low. “Had patrol nearby, heard they had you sitting on your ass here.”

My grimace was hidden by my mask. “You ditched whoever they had you with?”

“Nah. Vista’s covering for me.”

“Oh.”

If it had been a surprise when Rachel showed up in Chicago, following after me, Vista’s reassignment had been twice that. I didn’t know why Vista had been transferred- every person I asked about that particular situation gave me a different story about it- but I couldn’t deny that it was reassuring to have her on my side here regardless of why.

As Rachel and I sat down together, shoulders hunched against the rain, I double-checked that we weren’t too visible from across the street. They’d have to climb onto the roof of their building to have a chance of spotting us, and with the bugs I had watching them, we’d have plenty of warning if that did happen.

“You shouldn’t be here.” I found myself raising my voice to be heard over the rain. “There’s going to be a fight here soon, and you could get us both in trouble if you get caught off-route.”

She shrugged. “I heard the Wards talking about how much stakeouts suck, like being locked up but more stressful? Sounded like you should have someone here. So you don’t feel so alone.”

I took a deep breath. “It’s not that bad. I… I appreciate you being here, really. Given half a chance, I’d want you with me, but-“

“It’s not a chance. I’m already here. Shit’s done.”

As usual, Rachel made things simple, but my feelings were anything but. “Okay. Okay, sure. Don’t blame me if you catch a cold though.”

“I won’t.”

That conversation apparently over, we settled in, both leaning against the lip of the roof, about a foot apart. The rain hadn’t let up, but at least it was giving us some cover, and it was hard to imagine the sound of Rachel’s arrival alerting anyone with the constant background of noise.

For a while, we didn’t say anything, we just sat there in each other’s company. My nerves settled, and I let myself take in the information my power was giving me. It wasn’t like a trance state or meditation or anything, but it was keeping my mind occupied.

I still had a couple of bugs on Rachel, and from the small movements they made I could sense her small shifting, her slow breathing, as accurately as if I’d been lying right next to her. I couldn’t help but wonder why she’d come here. I trusted her, and she usually didn’t care enough to lie, but just hanging out with me couldn’t be enough for her to skip out on her patrol like this. She’d never done well with the few rules we’d had as a team, maybe this was her way of lashing out against the tight scheduling and regulations that came with being a former villain turned Ward.

I couldn’t really blame her, though. I was still convinced that I’d made the right choice, but even I was tired of the constant supervision and questioning of my actions. I couldn’t walk down the street without a chaperone, and that meant I had to ask someone for their permission to do even that. Rachel had just come here after me, because she trusted me. Was that enough to keep her around? What would the fallout be like if she left?

If the director wasn’t so needlessly antagonistic towards me, I’d try to spend more time with Rachel away from the others, give her the chance to let her guard down more often. But I knew if I asked for that, I’d be told no and given some sarcastic line about being as thick as thieves. It was a bit riskier than I’d like, and way more wet than I’d like, but it’d have to do for now.

“So… what do you think of Vista?”

“I could take her.”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “What do you think of her as a fellow Ward? Someone you’re working with?”

When I didn’t hear from her for a few seconds, I turned to see her staring off into the distance. Composing her words, maybe.

Eventually, she said, “she’s an annoying little brat, always looking over my shoulder and shit. But she’s good at helping.”

That surprised me a little. “What does she help you with?”

“Stuff.” Rachel said. “Forms and shit. Went with me to walk my dogs a few times.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. If you’d asked me-“

“You were busy. Out doing hero shit, or helping with that guy- Golem.”

“Yeah…” I said. “He’s the best chance we have right now at stopping Jack Slash from ending the world, and he’s only been a cape for what? A few months? He puts more into his training than the others, but he’s starting with a handicap, and he learns a lot more from fighting different opponents. I can simulate that with my bugs, so it helps a lot.”

“I get it,” Rachel said.

“Sorry, rambling. Got it.”

“It’s fine.”

“…okay.” The rain beating down on my head wasn’t quite as bad as knocking it into a wall, but I’d take it. “I was just saying… sorry I haven’t been there to help you, those times.”

“It’s fine.”

I needed to change the subject. “It’s cold as balls out here.”

…good fucking job, Taylor.

Rachel didn’t respond, but I couldn’t really blame her. I turned my full attention back to the building across the street; they weren’t talking, and the guy in charge was looking agitated, but not more than I’d expect when a meeting like this got delayed. It wouldn’t pose a problem unless a dozen other things went wrong, so it wasn’t worth worrying about right now.

My attention was drawn back into my body when I realized that there was a cold weight on my right side. I had good image with my bugs, but I turned my head to double-check with my eyes. Rachel had moved closer so that we were sitting shoulder to shoulder, and she was leaning into me just a bit.

“Uh…”

“Said you were cold,” Rachel said, a little defensively.

“I… yeah.” After a moment, I added, “thanks.”

I knew that our body heat would warm each other eventually, but I actually felt a bit colder right now; Rachel’s arm was pushing my own arm’s wet costume tight against me, leeching out the bit of heat I’d managed to keep. It helped to focus on my bugs; I still felt the cold, the wet, all of it, but if I let my mind spend time on them, it would just draw out the experience, make it worse. Time flies when you’re having fun, but when you’re… flies…

Maybe being out in the rain like this was making me sick. I’d considered it a mild risk when planning this, but my brain was _not_ working at 100% right now. That could be dangerous once it came to actually springing the trap. I’d have more resources to work with this time, but you couldn’t take anything for granted when this many capes were in the mix.

“So you’re doing a stakeout. Who are you staking out?” Rachel asked, before letting out long sigh. She was being more talkative than I was used to from her.

“You’re not wanting to join in, are you?”

“That would be stupid. Don’t have my dogs.”

“You’re plenty tough on your own,” I reassured her with a little nudge to her shoulder. “You knocked me on my ass that time when we were fighting the Slaughterhouse Nine, remember?”

“Yeah.”

There was an awkward pause, and before it got any longer, I volunteered “Benjamin Hicks. The police commissioner wants to take him in to destabilize the ‘drug pipeline’ into the city. _We_ care about his bodyguard, a villain named Burnback, and the other side of the meeting that’ll be happening some time soon.”

I tried not to let the tension get to me. I decided to focus on just giving Rachel the outline of the situation, hopefully to keep both of our minds off of the cold and wet. “The other side is three small-time villains, though I think them being small-time is because they’re smart, instead of them being weak. They have a pretty quick mover called Streamer, and their leader has a fucky kind of power that we don’t know much about yet. From what I can gather, they-“

I was interrupted by nearly biting my own tongue- my teeth had started chattering, and I hadn’t even noticed. I drew a few larger bugs nearer for their body heat and curled up a bit more. Symptoms were something I’d have to keep track of, but in the meantime keeping us distracted was still the best plan.

“They, uh, know what they’re doing. They’re using their powers to complement each other, only picking fights they think they can win, and getting out of fights others pick pretty much unscathed.”

“Like the Undersiders,” Rachel said.

“Well, ever since the bank robbery, we never really had a clean fight. Not that I can remember, at least.”

Rachel thought for a moment. “Before you joined. It was easier.”

I’d like to think that she didn’t still hold a grudge about me joining the team against her vote after all we’d been through together, but her words still stung a bit. Even more so because I couldn’t really say they weren’t true.

“Well, anyway, they clearly know how to use their powers and at least one member of their group knows how to use them well together, and how to plan out a heist or raid. If we capture them, hold a prison sentence over their heads, we could probably get at least one or two to join up with the Protectorate, bolster our ranks.”

“Never thought the Heroes needed more people.”

I shrugged with one shoulder. “The Protectorate is fractured. After what came out when Coil unleashed Echidna, heroes have been leaving in droves. Some have come back, and new people have trigger events and join up all the time, but with the increased rate of Endbringer events, I’m not sure we’re so much as breaking even right now.”

“And this will help?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “At least, we’ll have taken down some villains, so we’ll have less work to do in the future. More people whose efforts and talents can be used elsewhere. Not quite the same as signing up three or four new capes, but we can’t exactly be picky right now.”

Rachel shifted, and I instinctively turned a little to avoid my armor digging into my chest before I realized that she was basically laying _across_ me now, with her shoulder overlapping my sternum.

My first instinct was to move, but I realized that it was actually pretty nice. Warm, in a way, even though the cold, soaking fabric was still pressed against my skin. I wasn’t sure if Rachel had realized what she was doing, but I wasn’t going to bring it up if she didn’t. I wasn’t the one moving, after all.

It surprised me just how much having Rachel here, just physically sharing the same space, was turning this from a drudge to a decent time. Most of me was still cold, but I had some warmth, the steady sound off the rain coming down, and the bugs I had monitoring the area. I still wasn’t sure why exactly Rachel had come, but I was glad she had.

“So are we gonna make out or what?”


End file.
